Award-winning film-maker Mike Leigh (Mr. Turner, Secrets & Lies, Happy-Go-Lucky) paints a vivid picture of the travails of a working-class family in London's East End, struggling to stay afloat during the recession under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's premiership. 'Meantime', was also the debut feature film appearance of Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Trilogy, Leon) who plays Coxy, a local violent skinhead. Only the mother Mavis (Pam Ferris - Harry Potter, Children Of Men) is working; father Frank (Jeff Robert) and the couple's two sons Colin (Tim Roth - Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction), a timid, chronically shy individual and Mark (Phil Daniels - Quadrophenia, Eastenders), an outspoken, headstrong young man, are on the dole. This situation is contrasted by the presence of Mavis's sister Barbara (Marion Bailey - Mr. Turner), and her husband John (Alfred Molina - Spider-Man 2, An Education), whose financial and social loftiness, in suburban Chigwell, appears to be a comfortable facade over the unspoken soreness of a lacklustre marriage.